He's Mine (2021)

What did I just watch?

Filipino BLs tend to range from excellent/high quality (Gameboys) to really bad/low budget (Stranger's Kiss). Watching Episode 1 of He's Mine made it pretty clear that it was low budget, but it seemed interesting enough that I decided to stick with it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:

EYE CANDY. Yep, I'm that shallow. But the boys were indeed pretty, especially Cairo and Juanmig.

THEME SONG. I really enjoyed the theme song and looked forward to it each episode.

SOME OF THE ACTING. The cast was a mixed bag of really talented actors and... really not talented actors.

CONS:

THE STORY. What exactly WAS the story? What I saw -- mostly -- was two groups of "friends" who spent the entire time yelling and acting really bitchy toward each other. Other than Cairo/Juanmig, I wasn't getting how any of the other "relationships" actually developed. Calix's mom gets the award for Worst Mother in the World. And the finale was such a mess I have NO idea what story they were trying to tell. I suppose I could try rewatching it but... I don't wanna.

NO KISS. Okay, there was kind of one at the very end. But what's the point of creating a BL without kissing between the guys? We don't need simulated sex scenes or long make out sessions, but we do need some affection between the main leads.

PIANO MUSIC. The piano music played over and over and over throughout the entire finale practically made me want to remove my own appendix with a knife and fork.

COLLEEN. The character was awful (how could she have a BFF?), the actress was weak, and every time she said "Watch and learn," I just wanted to smack the girl.

I'm giving it a 5.0.

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”A unique story with an incredibly amazing technique?” Are you kidding me?

I've been a fan of Ranz Gonzales' series and especially of his cast since ”One Day Pag-Ibig”, although his series have the typical flaws of low budget productions like poor sound and cinematography, amateurish acting and a weak script. I hoped things would get better through ”learning by doing”, but they didn't.

”He's mine” is his third series, and it is really disppointing. When ODPI had at least an interesting basic idea and PKKT some kind of plot, ”He's mine” unfortunately is the worst Ranz Gonzales series so far, because old mistakes are being repeated, and new ones added.

I'm not talking about the terrible sound quality, the inconsistent editing and the poor directing – all this was already there in former series. What really annoys me is that there is no real plot. It starts like the good old rich vs poor story, and it goes on as the rich vs poor story for episode after episode without anything really happening. Whereas we learn about the poor guy's (Callix) background (evil mother, lazy elder brother, angel-like little sister), the reason for the rich guy's (Luke) sadness and bad mood remains in the dark until episode 9. The entire ”plot” consists of the two groups being mad at each other which gets boring soon, and the revelation of Callix and Luke's backstory in the final episode is completely implausible..

Another negative point is that the cast who showed at least some talent in former series are much worse in this one. The leads – Allen Caguioa as Luke and Clark Blancaflor as Callix – are in a bad mood for the first 8 episodes, yelling at each other – what they are doing can't be called acting at all – with the rare exception of Clark when he sets a highlight interacting with his family. It feels like the actors are embarrassed about the poor script and just don't want to be there.

We have to wait for the final episode until both Allen and Clark are allowed to show that they do have acting talent. Finally, Allen displays some different facettes than just being sad and mad. Actually, the only member of the cast who does not only have acting talent, but has proved in ”Stranger's Kiss” and ”My Chinito Prince” that he also has acting skills, is LJ Russell who unfortunately has only a minor support role. Like the lead actors, all the other (way too many) side characters speak in an unnatural way most of the time. It often sounds as if they have problems memorizing their lines, especially when they speak English.

I'm rating the acting an 8, but that's more for the cast, not exactly for their acting, because I love Allen, Clark, Robert, LJ, and Dave so much. Clark deserves an extra mentioning for the song he contributed to the OST again. I like his voice, and his compositions, so I'm a little sad we didn't get to hear more from him in this series.

The terrible writing peaks in the final episode, where Juanmig suddenly drops dead just for the sake of drama, and where the completely implausible backstory of Luke and Callix's ”relationship” is being revealed. Btw Luke's younger, nerdy self made me laugh out loud; congrats to the make-up designer for that.

When Global TV praise this series as a ”unique story with an incredibly amazing technique” that ”only Direk Ranz Gonzales can do” (source: youtube Global TV SMO Series community message), they must either be joking or blinded by the 7 million views their series have gained on youtube. These 7 million views prove that fans all over the world watch the series because they want to see Allen, Clark, Robert, Dave, LJ, and the rest of the lovely cast, but they watch it despite, not because of Ranz Gonzales' poor writing and directing.

When a small company like Global TV gathers so many views, they should be able to acquire sponsors or investors so that they can hire a competent writer, director and sound engineer to support Ranz Gonzales who could focus on what he's obviously good at: gathering an attractive cast. If nothing like that happens, I can only hope that the talented actors find a company that helps them improve their skills instead of simply exploiting their tiktok popularity. If they want to succeed in the entertainment industry, it's time for them to move on.

Let me finish with a hint for all those who like Allen Caguioa as much as I do: I recommend you to watch him baking cookies with his friend on his youtube channel which is a lot more entertaining than watching him grudgingly grumbling in ”He's mine”.

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Disappointed

I so disappointed in this series, they could have done so much better understand budget was low but that does not excuse how slow the storyline moved if there was even one.
I like some of the actors because I've seen them in other dramas but can't help feeling let down by this one, I felt calix and luke and Cairo and juanmig were actually gonna start getting together by ep 8 but that's way to long so I just gave up to be fair.
I felt the script was a disrespect to the actors but that's just my opinion, wouldn't watch it again as also got frustrated with how long it took for each episode to come out and how the subs in ep 8 was a mess,not gonna lie was proper gutted because I was looking forward to this drama, but such is life I guess.

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I'not really sure of what i had watch

How can i make a review based on the fact i'm not really sure of what i had watch

For sure i haven't watch a love story at all because Love story need to be developped through the serie not appear magically (most of the part comically) at finale episode

What i'm also sure i haven't watch a BL i watch something pretending to be a BL with boys telling they love each other but without any kind of proof (i don't ask a BL to have make out sessions of 10min or explicte sex scene but hug, hand holding, seducing time not yelling at each other every time they see each other ...)

What i think i had watch : A volley ball competion to be the king of the beach for what i care

What the production need to improve WRITING WRITING WRITING , better dialogue , sound
, did i already say writing ?
And i suggest the director to put less characters the next time but with better development, background and acting skills
I know the prod doesn't have lot of money but i had see school project with better quality than this

This is my first BL from this company not really sure if there will be a second time

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Péssima em todos os idiomas possíveis

Vamos pra mais uma resenha de série filipina de baixa produção, com roteiro totalmente sem lógica e qualidade duvidosa.

Nessa série, nada faz sentido... No primeiro EP, aparentemente os dois protagonistas estão terminando com suas namoradas. Coincidentemente, estão indo para o mesmo lugar, um lugar belíssimo, paradisíaco, que não foi aproveitado em nada pela péssima fotografia da série.

O fato dos dois, cada um com seu grupo de amigos, serem totalmente antagônicos é até plausível. O velho clichê de duas pessoas de classes sociais diferentes que se apaixonam, o que não faz sentido é a forma como eles largam tudo, como se não existisse uma vida lá fora, e simplesmente acampam na praia como se não houvesse amanhã. Nesse meio tempo, percebemos que a família de Cálix é um esgoto a céu aberto, com excessão de sua irmã. Já Luke/ Xymon tem um problema familiar de "pobre garoto rico".

Quando o passado deles vem à tona, não consigo pensar em nada mais incoerente. Parece que uma criança de 10 anos inventou esse roteiro... Do nada Cálix é gay, se relacionou com um ex que "morreu", que na verdade é Luke, que apenas fingiu morrer pra não machucar Cálix (não fica claro o porquê), tudo isso era de conhecimento da melhor amiga de Cálix, Joey, que pegava dinheiro de Luke para não contar nada, mas mesmo assim alega que fez tudo por amor.
Em todos os episódios antes dessa revelação, temos a impressão de que Luke está em um relacionamento com uma garota, que no final também sabia de tudo e apoiava seu amor por Cálix.
Pq motivo ele brigava e agia com violência para com seu "amor" e seus amigos, isso jamais saberemos.

A atuação está realmente ruim, e já vi esses atores atuando antes, e com certeza era melhor. O som da série é péssimo, a filmografia nem se fala, fotografia, ost, e todos os demais aspectos técnicos são ruins
Não estou falando da péssima qualidade de som, da edição inconsistente e da direção ruim – tudo isso já existia nas séries anteriores.

O casal secundário falha na atuação, realmente é ruim. E a história deles tinha potencial... Porém, como se não bastasse a série ser terrível, ainda me colocam a morte do Juanming, que era um amor por sinal. E pior, nunca foi explicada qual era a doença dele, que o matou de forma tão surreal. "Pelo menos" o casal principal termina junto, e Cálix mantém os amigos. Pq vindo da Filipina eu sei que poderia ter sido pior.

Não pretendo ver de novo, não vale a pena. Raramente digo isso, mas também não indico, não consigo ver nada de bom nessa produção.

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I prayed that the young director would avoid the mistakes he made with Paano Kaya Kung Tayo, which I rated solid with my eyes closed mainly because of the lead actors, some of whom are also in this series. Those who know me know that I always try to find something positive in a project, to praise for the effort and not to boost my ego, what a strict critic I am. But it really didn't work for me here. Total amateurism, when all the mistakes were repeated and more were added to them. Even a low-budget film can make a whip, but here it stayed with that dirty word, as the whole Czech saying sounds, and even the guys who played there didn't get it out of that mess.
STORY: only a tragedy could have written it, no real plot, just two antagonistic parties of young people, an implausible ending.
ACTORS: amateurism of the first class, I will perhaps build a monument to two characters: Calix's mother (in the way she treated her children) and an affected shot in the form of a girl with long hair.
SOUND: in connection with the PROCESSING - not very good, some scenes and the orchestra - the feeling that the creators are constantly artificially creating heart-wrenching or dramatic scenes, the main song is good and in one passage fake. The director (who also wrote the story) would probably benefit if he went to dig canals instead, maybe it would be better ...
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Modlil jsem se, aby se mladý režisér vyvaroval chyb, kterých se dopustil u Paano Kaya Kung Tayo, který jsem ohodnotil solidně se zavřenýma očima především kvůli hlavním hercům, z nichž někteří hrají i v tomto seriálu. Ti, kteří mě znají, ví, že se snažím vždy na projektu najít něco kladného, pochválit za snahu a neposilovat si své ego, jaký jsem přísný kritik. Tady mi to ale opravdu nešlo. Totální amatérismus, kdy se všechny chyby zopakovaly a přibyly k nim ještě další. I z nízkorozpočtového snímku se dá uplést bič, tady to ale zůstalo u toho sprostého slova, jak zní celé české rčení a z toho odéru to nevytáhli ani ti kluci, co tam hráli.
PŘÍBĚH: to mohl napsat snad jen tragéd, žádná pořádná zápletka, jen dvě antagonní party mladých lidí, konec nevěrohodný.
HERCI: amatérismus první třídy, dvěma postavám snad postavím pomník: Calixova matka (v tom jak se chovala ke svým dětem) a afektovaný panák v podobě dívky s dlouhými vlasy.
ZVUK: ve spojení se ZPRACOVÁNÍM - ne moc dobrý, některé scény a k tomu ten orchestr - pocit, že neustále uměle tvůrci navozují srdceryvné či dramatické scény, hlavní píseň dobrá a v jedné pasáži falešná. Režisérovi (příběh i napsal) by zřejmě prospělo, kdyby šel raději kopat kanály, možná by to lepší ...

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No Saving Grace

Watching this is like torture. The acting is atrocious, actually the closest I could call acting was from the girl playing Calix's little sister, the dialogues seemed to have been automatically generated in no way resembling how real people talk, the characters were badly introduced so I didn’t even know who was supposed to be the main couple in it, the audio sounded like they were talking with the microphone inside their pockets. I understand it is a very amateur project, but I have seen good low budget dramas so I wouldn’t use it as an excuse.

I also wish they would drop the random English or at least not use it for full sentences, because the broken English was very distracting. I think a lot of the weirdness in the dialogue came from using a foreign language they didn’t speak fluently.

I got a headache watching 5 episodes, I can only assume if I watched 10 it would give me an aneurysm.

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